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Minnesota Soldier Found Guilty of Going AWOL

Spc. Melanie McPherson, 28, of Tofte, Minn., was found guilty today and sentenced to three months in military prison for deserting her Army unit on the eve of deployment to the Middle East. McPherson fled Fort Bliss the day before her unit was supposed to leave for Kuwait in July.

She pled guilty to going absent without leave, but her plea was suspended by a military judge's ruling on the more serious charge of desertion.

The Startribune reported that McPherson, who was trained as a military photojournalist, said she left because she was afraid she would eventually be deployed to Iraq as a truck driver or military police officer. Read their story here: http://www.startribune.com/484/story/982528.html.

The Pioneer Press ran a story in today's paper that was almost identical to the one that ran in the Star Tribune. Both were by the Associated Press. Read The Pioneer Press story here: http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/local/16628819.htm.

Posted by Janessa on February 6, 2007 12:23 AM |

Comments

Hi. Nice job posting. Take note of the sources the two papers used in their stories about this. Expand the entry to include a discussion of how thoroughly the papers reported the story. Whom did they call? How illuminating was that reporting. Just a thought. Even if you review it yourself, it will be worth a look. Keep working, Janessa. Nice job.

Posted by: GG | February 7, 2007 7:26 PM

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